Growing into Rachel
Blog | Family | God's Word | Life Lessons
We stood on the front step this morning and waved until the school bus lumbered down the hill and blurred into a muted yellow smear.
Then we curled up in the big leather chair and opened the Jesus Storybook Bible.
There were once two sisters.
The youngest sister was very beautiful and her name was Rachel. But the oldest sister wasn’t beautiful at all (some thought her quite ugly), and her name was Leah.
Rachel was the kind of girl who always gets invited to parties and chosen for the team. Everyone loved her. And poor Leah? No one hardly even noticed her…
The simple story book continued to recount the familiar account from Genesis 29-30, a twisted tale of two women. One wanted; the other rejected. One treasured; the other tolerated. One the object of an ambitious man’s affection; the other the object of a devious man’s deception.
Now Jacob had two wives, but of his two wives, Jacob loved Rachel best.
Joshua had been quietly sipping his morning dose of chocolate milk when suddenly he linked his green eyes with mine. He peered at me, fully dressed in my morning reality– tangled hair and last night’s mascara smudges, chapped lips and bared black circles hanging low beneath my eyes. He cupped my cheeks with his small hands then lifted his lips to my ear. His warm misty breath caressed my face as his words embraced my soul.
“Mommy, YOU are a Rachel.”
The bold pages of the children’s Bible muted into soft watery hues through the lens of my uninvited tears. My little one moved his hands from my face to my shoulders. I placed our tattered bookmark in the storybook’s binding and pulled Joshua close to my chest. Inhaling the little boy fragrance of sweaty hair and sleepy breath, I thanked the Lord silently for my tender fourth-born.
Joshua laced his fingers through mine.
“Mommy, YOU are a Rachel.”
Unsolicited memories reeled through my mind like antiquated home movies…
Skipping and jumping like the choppy footage that flowed from my uncle’s two-reeled film projector when I was a pig-tailed child, the scenes unfolded as if they had been captured yesterday. I saw myself standing gawky and awkward in the cornflower blue bathroom of my youth. Glued to the mirror, I scrutinized every strand of dirty blond hair. Studied the soft pink blemishes on my pixie face. Bemoaned the missing curves on my stick-straight frame.
Measured.
Compared.
Wished…. that I had long silky hair like my sister, a quick-witted personality like my best friend, a cute curvy form like the girl who sat in front of me in English class….
I see her eyes, still, the deep blue yearning of the me who felt like a Leah in a Rachel world.
The me who had yet to discover my place in God’s heart. Chosen. Cherished. And Beautiful.
“Mommy?” Joshua asked as he tapped the colorful page in his Bible and beckoned me to read some more
“Yes, honey?”
“I want to hear the end.”
And so with gratitude, I read the end of my story. The end of your story. The never-ending truth of God’s story.
Now when Leah knew that God loved her, in her heart, suddenly it didn’t matter anymore whether her husband loved her the best or if she was the prettiest. Someone had chosen her, someone did love her- with a Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love…
You see, when God looked at Leah, he saw a princess. And sure enough, that’s exactly what she became. One of Leah’s children’s children’s children would be a prince- the Prince of Heaven—God’s Son.
This Prince would love God’s people. They wouldn’t need to be beautiful for him to love them. He would love them with all of his heart. And they would be beautiful because he loved them.
Like Leah.
(Story excerpts taken from The Jesus Storybook Bible, written by Sally-Lloyd-Jones).
The Overflow:
How beautiful you are, my darling!
Oh, how beautiful! -Song of Songs 1:15
ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! I love this story, if our girls can just know that they are always princesses to our Heavenly Father…that would be AWESOME! That is a prayer of mine! I love you! your the best friend ever!